


The Mess Downstairs

by poolsidescientist



Series: X-Files Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Season 2, during scully's abduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-04 04:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14584845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poolsidescientist/pseuds/poolsidescientist
Summary: Worried about agent Mulder, Skinner goes to visit the basement office. Set during Scully's abduction.





	The Mess Downstairs

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a prompt on Tumblr. Edited it and added it here. Let me know what you think. Also I own nothing but this story.

The mess in the basement office could only be described as resembling a warzone. As someone who had once fought in an actual warzone, FBI assistant director Walter Skinner was deeply distressed by this fact. The office had been messy as long as agent Mulder had occupied it. Agent Scully had attempted to make it habitable, and was somewhat successful. Even after the X-Files had been shut down, both agents still occasionally made their way down there from time to time. What Mulder and Scully did down there was the subject of much watercooler gossip. A.D. Skinner was not one for gossip. 

A.D. Skinner was however one to care about his subordinates.Although he was hesitant to admit it, he did have a soft spot for the two troublemakers downstairs. Agents Mulder and Scully investigated cases that nobody else would. Even after being split up, they were still his favourite team of agents. Or so they used to be until Duane Barry abducted agent Scully off to God knows where. Agent Mulder was heartbroken, agent Krycek was nowhere to be found, and Skinner’s office stank of cigarette smoke. It was horrifying and no one even knew where to start looking for Scully, least of all Mulder. Other than a case out in California, he had holed himself up in the basement office. He read through old files obsessively, looking for clues that he may have missed. Mulder blamed himself for everything. 

It was 1:00am when Skinner made his way down to the basement. He had been arguing with his wife as of late, and took to burying himself in his work. The way he always did when he was stressed. After overhearing the janitors complain about the state of the basement, Skinner figured Mulder needed someone to check in on him and that he needed to stretch his legs. 

Skinner smelled Mulder’s office before he saw it. Something had rotted somewhere, though Skinner did not have any desire to know what or where. The place stank. Files were everywhere, and papers littered all visible surfaces. The trash bin had overflowed and there mounds around it, covered in moving black dots that Skinner quickly realised were swarms of flies. There were pencils in the ceiling and tapes stacked haphazardly against the wall. Somewhere in this mess was Mulder. He took a step forward, not realizing what he was stepping in and fell backwards straight into one of the piles of garbage. Flies swarmed around his head which had crashed into a pile of decomposing mush that Skinner didn’t dare ask the content of. 

“Dammit!” he yelled. At this Mulder in his rumpled suit with bags under his crazed eyes emerged from behind a stack of files. Agent Scully would faint if she were there to see both the state of the office and her partner.

“Assistant director, what are you doing here? It’s one in the morning?” His shirt was spotted with grease and coffee stains.

“I could ask you the very same question agent Mulder.”

“Wait, did you seriously just slip on a banana peel?” Mulder surveyed the office. Skinner looked down at his foot, sure enough a brown and slimy banana peel was stuck to his shoe. He kicked it away, though most of the flies surrounding it continued to hop around his leg.

“With all due respect agent Mulder, what the fuck? The janitors don’t even want to come down here. This office is a health hazard. Agent Scully would be ashamed of you.” Skinner brushed empty sunflower seed shells and candy wrappers off of his head and slowly crawled out of the trash pile he had fallen into. He must have looked like hell.

“Don’t you DARE question my loyalty to agent Scully. I would do anything for her and you damn well know that.” Mulder kicked the trash bin, the flies zooming off like a black cloud. Mulder was clearly frustrated, yet at the same time he was on the verge of tears. The man was an absolute wreck. Not that Skinner was doing much better himself. They both stank of garbage.

“And agent Scully would do anything for you. Working yourself to death won’t save her, you think she would want to see you like this?” Skinner stood up, looking down on Mulder. In the man’s eyes he saw a frightened child, “Mulder, when was the last time you ate something that wasn’t out of a vending machine?”

“Seeds.” He pointed to the bag on his desk, sunflower seeds scattered across the files and on the floor.

“Other than seeds.” Skinner wiped the remaining shells off of his suit. 

“Probably that banana you just stepped in.” How Mulder had lived as long as he had was a mystery to Skinner. 

“Agent Mulder-” Skinner could not help but be concerned for the younger agent.

“I should probably go eat something. There’s a 24 hour diner three blocks away that has sweet potato pie. That counts as a vegetable.” Mulder said sheepishly. At that moment, Skinner’s own stomach started to growl and he realised that he had eaten nothing since lunch.

“I should probably eat something too. It’ll be my treat.” Mulder looked up with both curiosity and suspicion.

“As my boss?” Mulder asked as they walked towards the elevator, brushing chip crumbs off of his sleeve. Skinner couldn’t help but laugh.

“No,” Skinner wiped the remaining banana peel from his shoe to the floor of the elevator, “as your friend.”


End file.
